Religion is undoubtedly a vast and complex subject matter. There are unlimited ways to interpret its meaning and its powers. In order to tackle this difficult subject, my group decided to focus on the religious festivals that have been taking place in Rome from the ancient to current times. By examining festivals, their tradition, meaning, and why people continue to hold festivals, we hoped to understand better the bigger picture: the significance of religion to Romans throughout history, and today.
Ancient Roman Religion
Before I started the research process, I thought I had a solid understanding of the ancient Roman religion. From literature and Classics’ classes, I knew that ancient Romans were polytheistic Pagans who worshipped many of the Greek deities. They attributed certain qualities to each god, and gave offerings to each god for favors that god could grant, e.g. a safe journey across the Mediterranean from Neptune. As long as people worshipped each god and respected him for his realm of power (over water, sky, etc.), all would be well and people could live in peace. However, soon I discovered that ancient Roman religion is much more complicated, ambiguous, and mysterious than I had thought. Although all Roman citizens shared the same religion, there seemed to have been vast differences between cities, communities and families. Also, the dynamic between the State’s interpretation of religion and domestic or personal interpretation was an interesting one to note.
The most important discovery I made about the ancient Roman religion is that no such thing existed. Instead, “only a series of Roman religions, as many Roman religions as there were Roman social groups; the city, the legion…families and so on” existed (Scheid, 19). Although there were hundreds of Roman deities, deities owed their place “above all to a human decision, the will of the people, the senate, a magistrate or a mythical king” (Scheid, 147). Within families, the patriarch had the authority to decide on the adoption of a deity by his family and community. In the ancient Roman religion, religious authority was always shared, and “it was the founders of Rome, of other towns or of individual families who founded the religion of these communities and dictated its rules” (Scheid, 26). If that was the case, how was the State able to hold or enforce public festivals? Moreover, each deity protected a certain group of people, and only a few deities were patrons of the State: Jupiter, Juno, and Minerva. A person who is a shepherd who prays to Pales would not pray to Isis, the goddess of sailors, and if he did not live in Ostia, he also would not pray to Vulcan, the city god of Ostia. Every citizen had deeper connection to a different set of gods; why would a State with such religious diversity hold large public festivals?
In fact, for most ordinary citizens, “the effect of the great festivals was largely negative or passive” (Sheid, 57). They could attend the rituals as spectators, try to receive distributions of sacrificial meat, or watch the games during major festivals. But they had a right to do these things, not a duty. The complete opposite was true for domestic and community festivals. Everyone, citizens and non-citizens (slaves) had an obligation to participate in those festivals. How does this contradiction exist? It exists because the ancient Roman religion was a religion founded on the ideal of liberty: “people could all honour the gods and practice whatever cults they chose, providing they respected the public cult and its pre-eminence, public order, and the liberty of others” (Scheid, 28). I thought it was very interesting that people would attend the State’s religious festivals when they did not have religious connections to those deities being celebrated, and it was not their duty to attend. Ancient Roman citizens must have had a high sense of personal civic duty and pride for being a Roman; therefore, they attended these festivals to show respect to the State and preserve social harmony.
Reasons for holding festivals
Although different families and communities worshipped different deities, there were still reasons for the State to hold public festivals. The four main reasons for holding festivals were 1) to use festivals as a marker for time; 2) to retain social balance and harmony; 3) to use them to spread political messages and gain power (successfully or unsuccessfully); and finally 4) to use festivals to create a sense of community and personal identity.
Marker for time. Festivals worked as marker for time. Because they were always held at the same time each year, people could keep track of their time by witnessing festivals. There were two main categories of festivals that told time: Agrarian festivals and Civic festivals. Agrarian festivals were held to notify people of changing seasons, and upcoming planting/harvest work that must take place. Agrarian festivals, “through the homage paid to their patron deities, celebrated the seasonal sequence of labour and the submission of mortals to this fundamental law decided by the gods” (Scheid, 49). These festivals celebrated mainly the beginning and conclusion of different cycles of food supply. Examples of Agrarian festivals include Vinalia (August 23), which celebrated the beginning of grape harvest, and Consualia (August 21), which celebrated the storing of the harvests. Civic festivals are similar to rites of passage in that it represented and celebrated the most important life events: life, growth, death. These festivals included Liberalia (March 17), when young citizens adopted the adult dress of the toga, and Lemuria (May 9,11, 13), a festival appeasing the wandering spirits of the unburied dead. Civic festivals such as the Saturnalia (December 17) and Lupercalia (February 15) told time because they were celebrations of the end of the year; they were periods of general partying and ‘chaos’. Besides Agrarian and Civic festivals, there were other festivals linked to the structure of the year itself. These were Matralia (June 11) celebrating the Summer solstice, and Diualia (December 21) celebrating the Winter solstice.
Retaining social balance and harmony. Piety was an important aspect of the ancient Roman religion, and Cicero regarded it as “justice with regard to the gods” (On the Nature of the Gods, 1.116). Ancient Romans considered piety “a reciprocal social virtue, for the gods also had to fulfill their obligations” (Scheid, 26). If one stayed pious and fulfilled his duty towards his gods, favorable fortune would be returned. Impiety by denying gods the honors that were rightfully theirs, or damaging or neglecting their property had to be avoided at all costs. If impiety occurred by accident, such as incorrectly performing a ritual or offending a deity out of ignorance and without intent, performing rituals and making sacrifices could right the mistake. But if it was deliberate impiety, nothing could be done to protect the people from gods’ anger. In this case, the community freed itself from the responsibility by making sacrifices. The guilty person would remain forever impious and could never be atoned. Therefore, sacrifices and rituals (which make up festivals) played large roles in the minds of ancient Romans in retaining peace in their life.
Political Propaganda. “It follows that there was a religious aspect to every communal action, and a communal aspect to every religious action. Inevitably, therefore, public cult incorporated political aspects. In this sense the Roman religion could be said to be a political religion” (Sheid, 20). Although religious authority was shared amongst citizens, the aristocrats (magistrates, senators, etc.) had the sole authority to interpret auspices in public festivals. Inevitably, at times, they used their power to interpret for their own political agenda. However, politicians did not seem too corrupt; these were religious festivals after all, and who would want to anger the gods by passing on a false message? They let their political agenda influence their interpretations only slightly. “Authorities went in to interpret cults, and human and divine relations…[to] prompt subjects for reflection, which, at a religious festival or on a stroll through a cult site, might steer citizen’s thoughts in a particular direction” (Scheid, 175). Poets Ovid and Plutarch “frequently simultaneously put out several myths explaining a festival or a ritual. This indicates that those in authority “had no intention of proposing the right interpretation” (Scheid, 175).
Creating a sense of community, and personal identity. Festivals consist of many activities: Roman Games (Ludi Romani), auspices, auguries, divinations, banquets and feasts, and sacrifices. Many of these activities are ritualistic in nature, and must follow precise rules and procedures. King Numa had created a Roman calendar by dividing each month into days, which he separated further into “festi” (festival days), “profesti” (working days), and “intercisi” (half-and-half days). 109 days per year were created in honor of the gods, called “nefasti”, and about 61 of those days were also designated as public festival days, called “feria republica”. With festivals constantly taking place, the ordinary Roman citizen could not fully understand the meaning or follow the rituals of each festival. Instead, the Roman citizen was capable of only “understanding the primary meaning of the rituals…because he himself would perform rites very similar to those celebrated in public places by magistrates and priests” (Scheid, 31). However, for certain parts of festivals such as the sacrifices, the ordinary citizen could not even gain its primary meaning. This was because “in the case of sacrifice, there was an elaborate and precise system of different actions and that only those who were native-born were capable of easily understanding them and executing them correctly” (Scheid, 31). Every citizen participated in and could easily understand his domestic and community festivals because they had grown up with them, and were taught the rituals performed in his community festivals. However, citizens had a hard time following the public festivals because they were detached from those; they played no part in the festivals other than being a spectator. In this sense, festivals helped shape an identity. People in the same community who came together to celebrate their deity and hold festivals for those deities developed deep connections to those deities and their festivals, and the community grew stronger by sharing and repeating those experiences together. By understanding and being able to perform rituals of a specific community festival, one became a bona fide member of that community; your identity as a member of that community was formed.
Famous pagan festivals that still take place today
With a better understanding of the ancient Roman religion and the reasons why festivals were held, I moved on to the next phase of the research: why do people continue ancient Roman festivals today, and has their significance changed? To answer these questions, I chose to focus on two major ancient Roman religions that are still held or considered significant today.
Saturnalia. Up until 153 BC, March 15 served as the civic and religious New Year. From 152 onward, the date moved to January 1, and because of that a number of festivals related to the winter solstice became festivals marking the end of the year; most famous of these festivals was Saturnalia. Saturnalia was a major holiday and festival for ancient Romans whose central day fell on December 17. It was a religious festival dedicated to Saturn, the god of agriculture and harvest, and a time of partying to celebrate the end of the year. Public banquets were held after the sacrifice at the Temple of Saturn, the oldest temple recorded by the pontiffs. The celebrants would shot “Io, Saturnalia”, and a riotous feast would begin in the temple. It was originally celebrated for only a day, but it was so popular that it soon lasted a week. Emperors such as Augustus and Caligula wanted to shorten the festival days to three or five, but those restrictions never lasted long. The poet Catullus describes Saturnalia as the “best of days”; a time of celebration, visits to friends, and gift-giving (particularly of wax candles and earthenware figurines). During Saturnalia, rules were relaxed, and gambling was allowed in public. Social order was inverted, and slaves did not have to work. Instead, slaves were treated as equals, allowed to wear their masters’ clothes, and be waited on during meals by other members of the family. People were relaxed and did not have to pay so much attention to social customs. Within each family, a Lord of Misrule was chosen. An ancient writer wrote that during Saturnalia, no business or being serious was allowed. Images of the festival described by writers include slaves feasting, people singing naked, and mad clapping of the hands. A famous quote by Statius about the Saturnalia goes as this: “For how many years shall this festival abide! Never shall age destroy so holy a day! While the hills of Latium remain and father Tiber, while thy Rome stands and the Capitol thou hast restored to the world, it shall continue”. Because of the many similarities Saturnalia and Christmas share, such as gift-giving and feasting, and because Christmas celebration was not recorded until several hundred years after Jesus’ death, it was likely that the later Christians "wished the date to coincide with the pagan Roman festival marking the 'birthday of the unconquered sun'" according to Encyclopedia Britannica. Scholars believe Saturnalia and Christmas to have strong connections, and that Christmas took over Saturnalia traditions.
Lupercalia. Lupercalia was a major fertility festival celebrated on February 15. It is such an ancient festival that its origins and which god it is dedicated to have been forgotten. Ovid suggested Faunus, Livy suggested Innus, while some others suggested Lupercus and Mars. Regardless of the unclear history, people continued to celebrate the popular festival. The festival took place on the Palatine Hill inside the Lupercal, a grotto where according to legend the she-wolf suckled Rome’s founders, Romulus and Remus. The festival included the sacrifice of two male goats and a dog. The bloody knife used in the slaughter marked the forehead of two young men from noble families, and a woolen cloth soaked in milk wiped off the bloody traces. At this point, the boys burst out laughing. Following the banquet where the sacrificed animals were eaten, the Luperci (brotherhoods of wolf-men) cut strips called februa (strips used for purification) from the backs of the sacrificed goats. Wearing only loincloths, these Luperci set off on a run around the Palatine, using the februa to hit people they saw. Young women who wanted to have children were eager to receive these lashes because it was believed that they promoted fertility and easy childbirth. Lupercalia “had the ultimate aim of promoting both human and animal fertility in the agro-urban community” (Turcan, 57), and like Saturnalia, drinking was a large part of the festival. The festival survived well into the Christian era, until 494 AD when Pope Gelasius made February 15 the feast of the Purification of the Virgin Mary.
Conclusion
Although ancient Romans held festivals for various reasons such as for political reasons or using them as tools for telling time, today’s people celebrate these pagan festivals for similar yet different reasons. The need to use festivals as markers for time does not exist anymore; we live in a digital world. The public is not attending pagan festivals like in the ancient times; they are mainly held in private homes, or in public at a much smaller scale. Politicians no longer have religious authority, nor do they seek out festivals as a medium to spread their influence. Paganism is long forgotten in the western world, and people no longer believe in ancient Roman gods’ powers to preserve harmony and peace in the world. The only common reason for people holding ancient Roman festivals back then and now is the festivals’ ability to create a strong sense of community and identity. When I was searching for modern practices of Lupercalia or Saturnalia, I found on youtube many clips of families celebrating Saturnalia dinner for the sake of trying something different. Many people use Saturnalia or Lupercalia as excuses for big celebrations, getting to pretend to be Romans for a day (thus satisfying their obsession with the glorious Romans). For others, however, these ancient festivals are still highly significant, and they hold these festivals seriously, following the exact procedure the ancients did. A group called Nova Roma, who is dedicated “to the restoration of classical Roman religion, culture, and virtues”, and promotes “shared Roman ideals” are one of those groups who take ancient Roman festivals very seriously today. You can even become a “Roman” by applying for citizenship on the Nova Roma website. They “attempt to reconstruct the ancient religion of the Romans as closely as possible”; taking part in these ancient festivals today gives them pride and renews their sense of identity as Roman. Even after two thousand years, ancient Roman festivals are conducted today for the same reason as they were in Rome’s golden age: they are a social venue where people make connections to and tie themselves to selected deities and the community that worship those deities, and in the process create a personal identity as a member of that religious community.
Bibliography
Scheid, John. An Introduction to Roman Religion. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press Ltd, 2003. Print.
Turcan, Robert. The Gods of Ancient Rome. New York: Edinburgh University Press Ltd, 2000. Print.
http://penelope.uchicago.edu/~grout/encyclopaedia_romana/calendar/saturnalia.html
http://ancienthistory.about.com/od/saturnalia/a/saturnalia.htm
http://roman-history.suite101.com/article.cfm/the_lupercalia_a_roman_festival
http://depthome.brooklyn.cuny.edu/classics/dunkle/romnlife/luprclia.htm
http://www.novaroma.org/nr/Main_Page
